Friday, January 04, 2008

What next for the XO Laptop?

How things change in the space of six months.

The relationship has never been easy between US chip maker Intel and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation, a non-profit that hopes to sell an innovative cheap laptop called the XO to children in the developing world.

No harm in that you would have thought, except that the XO is powered by a chip made by Intel's arch-rival AMD. So, to get its own share of the market, Intel built its own cheap laptop called the Classmate PC powered by an Intel chip.

Then they kissed and made up. In July, Intel joined the OLPC board, with 11 other major companies including Google, News Corporation, and eBay. It then began work on an Intel powered version of the XO. However, Negroponte demanded that they scrap the Classmate PC.

Today, only six months later, Intel has quit the OLPC citing "philosophical differences" but meaning that it has refused Negroponte's request to kill the Classmate.

The OLPC has said that little will be lost by Intel's move, adding that the Intel-powered version of the XO had been more expensive and more power hungry than the AMD version.

The squabble is unlikely to help the OLPC get more laptops into the hands of children, but it isn't going to hurt too much either. Consumers usually benefit from healthy competition.

What the OLPC needs to concentrate on is distribution, one of its trickiest and most expensive challenges. It recently trialled a "give one, get one" programme in North America, in which people were encouraged to buy two XO machines, one for themselves and one for a child in the developing world. Expect to see more of these kinds of programmes.

The OLPC needs to look at other innovative ideas for distributing its computers. One option might be to tie up with companies such as Coca Cola, which already have sophisticated distribution networks in the developing world.

The 2003 WSIS proposal by David Laughing Horse Robinson has come a long way; his concept:Solar powered tablet PCs interfaced with a village wifi enabled telekiosk for education delivery. PC's would have Dragon Naturally Speaking, digital ink paint program like Wacom Graphire and MathType to accomodate dyslexia, dysgraphia, colorblindness in indigenous populations. OLPC, Intel and other companies worldwide have made great leaps toward a satisfying endproduct but more can and WILL be done. Keep up the good work EVERYONE!

I think intel are at best idiotic for getting involved in a project which they weren't really committed to (and resultantly undermining it) - OR - at worst, conieving, anticompetative and deliberately responsible for undermining it.

I would respect intel's desire to compete, but why did they even bother getting involved in the project in the first place? They're almost entirely responsible for the long delays of the project. They should be held to account.

The bottom up approach for the xo is very brave, but if they wish to drive costs down, they need to sell more units, and that means selling to anyone, developed countries would have far greater purchasing power, although it may only be technology students who have the skills required to open the market up. Also it might be more effective to aim the product at the teachers who have access to the most students and need to understand the applications if they are going to help introduce the device to their students. At the end of the day the applications are what differentiate the machine.